1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to alarm clocks and more particularly to techniques used in alarm clocks to ensure that the user of the alarm clock is really awake when the user shuts off the alarm.
2. Description of Related Art
Most everyone has experienced problems waking up in the morning. In response to this need the alarm clock was developed to produce an audible signal to rouse an individual from their slumber. The original alarm clocks were mechanical in nature and caused a bell in the alarm clock to ring when a specified time was reached. Improvements in clock technology over time resulted in digital alarm clocks in which time was determined by electronic circuitry and displayed by a Light-Emitting Diode (LED) or other electronic display. The use of such electronic circuitry permitted further developments, among them the “snooze alarm”. The object of the snooze alarm is to allow the alarm to be temporarily suspended while the individual catches a last few minutes of sleep.
The drawback to the snooze alarm is its abuse by its user. An individual who has been waked up by an initial alarm activates the snooze alarm and falls back to sleep. When the alarm is triggered a second time, the individual repeats the process by activating the snooze button again. This process can continue to repeat itself until the individual has slept past the time needed to get up to attend some important event. In attempting to prevent this, the individual can move the alarm clock to a new position across the room. The drawbacks in so doing are that the snooze button becomes useless, the alarm clock may be too far away to be readable, and the individual has to go to the clock to reset the time or the alarm.
It is an object of the invention to provide a wakeup device which may be located near the sleeper but requires the sleeper to get out of bed to turn the wakeup device off.